224 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



with their habits and methods of hfe. There is a sub-family of 

 them called the Benibccidce, and they are insects which have a 

 large body, a very distinct lip, and pointed mandibles which 

 have one tooth on their inner margin. The species of the genus 

 Benibex are remarkable for the great length of their jaws, and 

 their lower lip is formed into a sort of trunk, and they may be 

 seen sucking up honey with it from flowers. Beinbex rostrata 

 is the commonest of them, and it digs deep, cell-like holes in the 

 sand, and victuals them with flies and Diptera of all kinds ; it 

 then lays its eggs, and closes the orifice of its cell with that great 

 care which has already been noticed amongst the Sphegidce. The 

 examples we have offered showing the habits of the fossorial 

 Hynicnoptera have a certain sameness, for in every instance the 

 female builds the nest, fills each cell with victims for the future 

 larva, lays an ^%^ close by them, and shuts up the habitation, 

 and then dies without ever seeing its progeny. 



But M. Fabre, of Avignon, has described the habits of Bembex 

 vidua, which are certainly most remarkable and suggestive, and 

 probably very rare, in the history of the Hymenoptera. In this 

 species the female does not close up the cell, but penetrates into 

 it every day, carrying in a fresh victim for the larva; and it 

 always chooses a fly. Here is a case of a female insect caring 

 for its larva which it sees, and which it notices to eat and care 

 for food, so that the daily visit becomes a pleasure and a duty, 

 according to the usual law of maternity. Of course the larvae of 

 this species run great risks, for their cells remain unclosed, and 

 carnivorous insects may enter in and destroy them. Moreover, 

 the mother may be taken and killed herself, and then, as no food 

 would be forthcoming, they would die from starvation. There 

 is no doubt that the habits of this species cast a light upon those 

 of the insects which only provide one store of provisions, and 

 then close their nests ; for it is not difficult to imagine that if 

 the ^^^ of a former Bembex vidua, the predecessor of all these, 

 should not happen to have hatched at the second visit of the 

 mother, she would have closed the hole and left it uncared for, 

 not seeing the use of troubling herself to no purpose. 



Cerccris areuaria is a species of the tribe of the Crabronidcs, 

 its members are very common in Europe, and have been 



